Rottis crossing borders

Kalaburagi’s rottis will soon find a place in the international market as the district administration has geared up to export them. A brand of rottis was launched by the administration last week, and officials have formed and registered a cooperative society to encourage the export of jowar rottis or jolada rottis, the staple diet of people in the North Karnataka region. This will also help farmers get better prices for the less-water-intensive jowar. Farmers in the region have recently been grappling with the loss of their tur crop due to natural calamities and wilt disease.

Rotti manufacturing centres have mushroomed in North Karnataka over the last few years and thousands of women have become self-reliant by engaging in the occupation. Jowar flour (sorghum) is mixed with warm water to make the dough. A small portion of dough is spread thin in a circular shape. Some do this by hand and some use a roller. 

The Kalaburagi district administration has initiated this intervention to motivate the centres to supply for the export market. The officials are also working on agreements between registered jowar rotti manufacturing cooperative societies and companies like Flipkart, Amazon, BigBasket and Reliance.

In the initial stage, the efforts are focused on finding marketing avenues in tier-1 cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune. Later, they plan to export the product to the non-resident Indian market and people from North Karnataka settled abroad. They are currently identifying license holders who can export the 'Kalaburagi Rotti' brand. The officials are also holding discussions with the rotti manufacturing co-operative societies to chalk out the plan to export their product and fix the prices.

"The district administration is providing a platform for cooperative societies manufacturing 'Kalaburagi Rotti' to sell their products,” says Agriculture Department Joint Director Samad Patel. He adds that jowar rotti comes with health benefits. “It is easy to digest and has high nutritional value. Therefore, there is great demand in the international market and we are making plans to tap it.”

The cooperative societies are planning to sell the rottis online across the country. The administration has supplied rotti-making machines at a 50% subsidised rate to the women self-help groups registered in the society under various schemes. Each machine ranges from Rs 1.5 lakh to 6 lakh and can manufacture more than 500 rottis in one hour. 

Some private companies in Hubballi are already supplying jowar rottis to Australia and the United States occasionally. But women self-help groups in Kalaburagi have initiated a novel method by joining hands under a single umbrella and forming a registered cooperative society with support from the district administration to export the jowar rotti, say officials. 

Jowar cultivation

Agriculture department officials explain that Kalaburagi was predominantly a jowar cultivation area during the rabi season two decades ago. But the farmers gradually switched over to tur. At present, the crop is being produced in around 1 lakh hectares out of the total 2.5 lakh hectares under cultivation.

"The district administration has provided me a jowar rotti manufacturing machine at Rs 3.08 lakh. I bought it using the government subsidy and a bank loan,” says Neelamma Melkundi, who makes jolada rottis. “I have started preparing 1,000 rottis an hour. I have employed four women and hope to get Rs 50,000 net revenue in April by supplying rottis to wedding ceremonies and other functions. I am also planning to export rottis as officials are finding marketing opportunities abroad,” she adds.

Neelamma purchases jowar at Rs 50 per kg and manufactures 28-30 rottis from one kilogram of jowar flour. She makes around 3,000 rotis every day and sells it at  Rs 5 to 6 each. The price of each rotti has doubled during the last four years due to the increasing demand.

A woman counts and arranges jolada rottis.

Women cook the rolled-out rottis.